Spiritual father of india

We began to see Prabhupada as a great saint here in his homeland, relaxed, the true spiritual father of India, taking his place on the balcony to address flushed and excited devotee crowds like the Pope at St. Peter’s, his forehead plastered with sandalwood paste, the rooms and halls behind him suffused with the aroma of gardenias and tuberoses. Prabhupada was loving it – and we were loving him more each second. To see our father, our best friend, our master, so well treated, so revered by a whole city – it made us dizzy with new realizations. Prabhupada was a saint! The word for saint in Sanskrit comes from the root sat, “one who knows and abides by the truth.” Prabhupada was being venerated for his virtue and knowledge, as a living example of the truth. And seeing these angelic citizens of Surat, we realized, too, what the world might be like if everyone became a devotee of Krishna.